Owning your own home

Anyone have a recommended London solicitor for pursuing a claim against a builder?

This is for a colleague who has found himself in a pickle: house extension / conversion, an architect, a builder who would like to weedle out of remaining commitments.

In his words "our builder is trying to steal himself out of the building contract (that he delayed delivering for the past eight months). And in order to be on the "good" side, is making massive / inflated claims for excess-spend / client-caused delays. Now while our architect can refute this well enough, a legal threat is a legal threat".

So he's looking for a bulldog of a lawyer to get the builder to complete and make good the work started.

[edit ^^^^]

i'd have a think about what you want out of it, too. don't listen to these babies - you could tell them you will consent it they fit a new fence down the whole boundary. they get half a brick more space and you get a new fence.

Solid advice. A whole new fence seems fair and appropriate.

In London’s famous London the new fence will be agreed, then the new garage will appear, then the new fence will be forever delayed.

that shed will add significant value to an already valuable asset. if using an asset you work hard to pay for contributes to that, then why shouldn't you be entitled to a little piece of it?

if you'd rather be generous, or look at 6ft of fence in front of 8ft of wall (rather that 8ft of wall), that's fine, too - i'm just pointing out the options.

you should see what cunts get when someone want to oversail with a crane or with scaffolding, and that is temporary...

Cheers and @Bobbo and @hugo7

That kind of thing is a possible (although that model wouldn't fit the cupboard). Just wondering how well they actually work and how much space they cost. You see a lot of them online but very few people seem to have them and I'm not sure if that's because they're not that good.

Yup, business is business! ;)

I appreciate that many other people, by the sound of it you are one of that number, know more about this than I do. When I have to deal with any issues about property boundaries at work I will always recommend that clients deal with professionals even if they have amazing relationships with their neighbours things can turn nasty.

Can't help with the solicitor but be warned many unscrupulous builders will be more than willing to go down the phoenix route if faced with a lawyered up client and they know they have no case.

the line of junction notices don't really give you the option to appoint a surveyor at their cost, in the same way a party structure notice (or adjacent excavation notice) does, so you'd be paying their fees.

Section 1(8) provides that the section 10 dispute resolution mechanism applies to section 1 notices as well as disputes arising from other PWA notices

Yep - apologies.

The LoJ notice process allows dissent.

Yes that’s the one. It’s the tall cupboard I was wondering about, doesn’t look very Ikea..

Ahhhh got ya.. the ceiling to floor one, that was custom, but a pretty bad job done by a dodgy Romanian (his own words - he suggested he may kill my neighbour for complaining about his van) who finished it in yacht varnish because the satin stuff I supplied wasn't shiny.
Had to redo most of it, but was pretty happy in the end.

Where are these from - Plykea?

The house we're buying has a Magnet Somerton kitchen - I'd like to remove the wall hung cabinets and replace the fronts of the remaining cabinets. Plykea/custom fronts aren't an option for this but is there anyone else? It's likely we'd be re-doing the kitchen in the next 2-3yrs but I really dont like the existing cupboard so would prefer to change if poss.

Plykea/custom fronts aren't an option for this but is there anyone else?

Cutwrights will cut and edge panels for you to any size you want from a wide range of materials and finishes. They can make up shaker style doors for you but don't think that's your thing seeing as you're looking to get rid of some. Will come in at a reasonable price per door if you just want to have flat panels. Also you can get them to CNC out any hinge recesses etc saving you a job.

Ok thanks.

So options are do something like that. Replace the whole thing. Or do nothing.
Painting seems like a nightmare. @dbr or @chrisbmx116 any ideas?

If I was planning on re-doing a kitchen in 2-3 years I would try and make the best of what I had for the next 2-3 years. By the time you've got wood cut to size (current situation would delay this I suspect) got them fitted (also delayed right now) or fitted them yourself it would be 6 months or more down the line.

From a quick google the Somerton range is inset, so whatever doors you get you're still going to have the frame of the cabinets exposed - how would you deal with that colour irregularity if there was one?

On the Magnet website the Somerton range is listed as "Framed painted solid timber" - doesn't that mean it could be sanded back and painted? I would maybe give Magnet a shout to see what their interpretation of painted solid timber is.

There are loads of companies out there doing replacement doors for cheapish. Probably still looking at £500-1,000 for a full kitchen though.

Magnet Somerton kitchen

It looks fairly inoffensive to me so andosandos point seems sensible.

Have you thought about changing the door handles and repainting or retiling the rest of the kitchen?

Some friends had a place with a decent kitchen that wasn't to their taste. They painted, retiled and replaced the floor and it looked totally different despite still having cabinets and counters they never would have chosen.

Admittedly it wasn't big so changing the floor was cheap.

Yeah our plan is to remove some of the wall hung cabinets and plaster/repaint/tile where these would have been.

I just really don't like the cabinet doors/handles. I know it will seem silly but I spend so much time in the kitchen that I know it will grate on me.
I think as we're removing some of the cabinets, I'll test out how good a finish I can achieve by painting them, if it's reasonable I'll give that a go - seems like the most sensible solution. Maybe it should have been a DIY Q.

Those little sponge rollers seem to give an easier finish.

Also depending on what sort of handles you're after I found AliExpress pretty good for making our little one's kitchen. There were also small round brass ones we didn't use that were very well finished.

What colour is it out of interest, because in darker finishes with small handles it looks alright?

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We replaced all the doors on the kitchen in my wife’s old place. Painted the offensive wood-look melamine end panels with specialist paint, think it was Zinsser. Worked well, and not too bad to do. I wouldn’t paint doors, but the odd edge or end panel is fine.

As people have said, there are loads of companies out there doing made to measure replacement doors. Very easy to fit.

@Tenderloin I was pretty happy with the finish I achieved using a Zinsser primer and Farrow and Ball "cabinet paint" watered down ever-so slightly and layered up carefully (I'm not really sure if its for cabinets but F&B sales person said it would work).

That or Frenchic paint will work